Congressman Joe Pitts, April 1, 2005

I was intrigued to read a story recently in the Daily Local News about a Kennett Township family that is using solar power to reduce its energy costs.

Using a grant from the southeastern Pennsylvania ’s Sustainable Development Fund Solar Photovoltaic Grant program, the Taylor family converted 40 percent of their 11-year-old home electrical usage to solar power. They realize $650 in savings in the first year of their solar experiment.

It works like this. They installed a solar photovoltaic system -- basically a network of solar panels -- that collects the energy emitted from the sun in the form of light. That energy is stored. When the energy is used up -- gauges throughout the house show how much solar power is left -- the home switches over to the PECO power grid that the rest of us rely on for power.

It doesn’t completely remove the need for traditional sources of power -- oil, coal, water, nuclear, etc. -- but it is a step in that direction. At the very least, it offers one more alternative for families like the Taylors coping with rising energy costs.

That’s why solar power will be among the issues discussed this week when the House Energy and Commerce Committee meets to debate and vote on a national energy plan. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 authorizes $300 million for solar programs, starting with a goal of installing 20,000 solar roof-top systems in federal buildings. The legislation will also invest billions in other forms of renewable energy sources, such as hydropower.

But it doesn’t stop there. The popularity of "hybrid cars," like the Toyota Prius and Ford Escape, has inspired further government investment in alternative-fuel vehicles. For instance, our plan spends $2 billion over five years on research to make hydrogen fuel cell cars competitive in the marketplace by 2020. It allocates $200 million for the Clean Cities program that will offer provide assistance to state and local governments to acquire alternative-fuel vehicles. The Clean School Bus program is the first of its kind to provide $100 million to retrofit existing diesel buses with new pollution control technology and a second initiative on school buses provides $200 million in grants for the replacement of older school buses with clean alternative-fuel vehicles.

The Energy Policy Act also includes a significant investment in clean coal technology -- a component of the energy plans presented by both Presidential candidates last year. The legislation provides a $1.8 billion for the Clean Coal Power Initiative, which will provide funding to those projects that can demonstrate advanced coal-based power generating technologies that achieve significant reductions in emissions.

Much of the debate over the next few weeks about the energy bill will focus on oil, its cost, and its source. This is important because our economy relies on a steady stream of oil to run. A sudden and severe disruption in supply or government action that leads to significantly higher prices would cause economic hardship from top to bottom. There’s no way around it.

The government must walk softly, therefore, when shifting focus from oil to other sources of energy. We can only do that through a proper mix of incentives to encourage creation of new technology, grant programs like the one that assisted the Taylor family, helping companies clean up old energy sources like coal, and finding new sources of oil.

During the course of debate on this bill there will be accusations hurled by both sides, perhaps even in response to this column. Some will claim that supporters of the bill want to give big oil companies a hand out. Others will claim that opponents want to halt economic progress in the name of an extremist environmentalist agenda.

When we look past these accusations, the facts remain that government must chart a course that keeps oil flowing into our economy without increasing its cost and encourage the development of technologies which reduce our demand for the oil that flows into our economy.

Congress has been unable to agree on the terms of a national energy plan over the last four years. With this new effort to find a solution, I hope that we will be able to put in place our nation’s first comprehensive national energy policy.

Congressman Joe Pitts, a Republican, represents Pennsylvania's 16th Congressional District, which includes Lancaster County and parts of Chester County and Berks County.